june 07

--we have a new member of the family to introduce. sierra rose hunt was born on friday, june 22nd. i had had contractions off and on since tuesday, but they never got painful though they did get regular. went to bed thursday night with the same situation. woke up at 1am with contractions that were real. woke everybody up at 2 after timing them, and we got to the hospital at 3am. they had to "observe" me and monitor the contractions and her heartbeat, while they checked me into the computer. i was 4-5cm dilated and they were 3.5minutes apart at that time.
--when i finally got to go to my room, they were hurting much more and coming much faster. almost immediately (seems to me now) that i felt like pushing. so at 4:45am, my midwife checked me again and i was fully dilated and ready to push. sierra was born at 5:08am. pretty fast...not counting the days of warmup contractions. aidan's total labor was 9hours...her's was about 4. sounds great, right??? only problem was that i never really had time to adjust and get "comfortable" with each pain level before they got stronger...each contraction was worse than the previous. oh well. we made it through...and without meds!!! and we have a healthy little girl now, so we're happy! :)
--she was full term, weighed 8pounds 15ounces, and was 20.5inches long. (aidan was two weeks early, 8pounds 13ounces, 21inches long.)
--personally, i think she looks EXACTLY like aidan did when he was born, she just has darker hair...besides the obvious gender differences! ;)
--i've had a lot of help lately, we've had company basically every day since the 15th of june. i had one day alone a couple weeks ago, and i have today. tomorrow, we're driving to new jersey/new york for about 10 days. then things will probably settle into more of a routine when we get back. --sierra's great. she's already growing and learning. at two weeks she weighed 9pounds, 4.5ounces, and was 21.5inches long. (fyi: she went down to about 8pounds 5ounces by the time we left the hospital, and she was 20.5inches long.) she was holding her head up almost immediately, but can do it much better and longer these days. her eyes are open a lot more lately, she's staying awake during the day for longer periods of time. she's a great sleeper, she only wakes up around 2am and 5 or 6 am to eat, going to bed around 11:30. she's a really easy baby, and super sweet. we're having lots of fun with her around.
--aidan has regressed a bit with the potty training, and at first was upset to have to share mommy and daddy with someone new, acting out a bit. that's gone down now, though it still happens, and we're getting back to our potty routine. mostly he wants to "help" (which means hold her.) he's also a good real helper...he'll go get things for me or take diapers to the trashcan. and he likes to rock her in her seat and kiss her on the head.